COLÓN, Panama — Eleven U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers assigned to U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) earned the Jungle Tab after completing the Jungle Operations Training Course-Panama Aug. 2, adding jungle expertise to the command’s Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations formations.
Jungle Operations Training Course-Panama, or JOTC-P, places students in Panama’s tropical environment, where heat, humidity, dense vegetation, water obstacles and restrictive terrain turn routine Soldier tasks into challenges requiring deliberate planning and adaptation.
The course trains participants to survive, maneuver and operate in jungle environments while developing skills in mobility, navigation, waterborne operations and fieldcraft.
For the USACAPOC(A) Soldiers who attended, the lessons extended beyond learning how to move through the jungle.
“The thing about the jungle itself is that it takes whatever plan you have and it forces you to adapt to it,” said Sgt. Timothy Ryan, a psychological operations specialist assigned to the 304th Psychological Operations Company in Sacramento, California. “It forces you to adapt to that environment.”
Ryan said doctrine provides a foundation, but austere conditions can require Soldiers to develop creative solutions to reach an objective, return safely and remain effective.
That adaptability is especially relevant for Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Soldiers, who often support formations outside their parent units. At JOTC-P, Ryan said that meant integrating with U.S. Marines, adapting to how they moved and communicated, and continuing to perform psychological operations tasks.
“You also need to be able to soldier, because people will be counting on you at a certain point,” Ryan said.
For USACAPOC(A), that lesson has broader relevance. The Army Reserve command provides Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations and information-related capabilities in support of conventional and special operations forces, requiring its Soldiers to remain effective across varied terrain and operational environments.
JOTC-P also gave Soldiers an opportunity to learn directly from Panamanian personnel experienced in the region. Ryan recalled watching a Panamanian partner track another squad after noticing a single overturned leaf, a small detail that demonstrated the fieldcraft local partners brought to the course.
“Working with the partner nations, you learn so much because they live there, they operate there,” Ryan said.
The training also connected the Soldiers to a longer history of Army jungle operations in Panama. Aeronaval Base Cristóbal Colón, formerly Fort Sherman, served for decades as a center for U.S. jungle warfare training before the Army’s course there closed in 1999. The renewed training mission at Aeronaval Base Cristóbal Colón returned U.S. forces to terrain where earlier generations learned many of the same lessons about operating in tropical environments.
For Ryan, crossing rivers with a rucksack and rifle, moving beneath the jungle canopy and repeatedly adapting to the terrain gave practical context to those earlier lessons.
“A lot of these skills, they ebb and flow,” he said.
The timing of the graduation also placed the USACAPOC(A) Soldiers at an important point in the Army’s renewed emphasis on jungle warfare. Five days after the Aug. 2 graduation, the Army formally announced Army-wide wear of the Jungle Tab as an official Skill Tab for qualified Soldiers in the active Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard.
For the 11 graduates, the tab marks completion of a demanding course, but its value extends beyond individual recognition. The Soldiers returned to their formations with experience operating in restrictive terrain, solving problems under physical stress and integrating with forces outside their own organization.
The command has also secured additional seats for future JOTC-P classes, expanding opportunities for more USACAPOC(A) Soldiers to develop the same skills and bring them back to their formations.
Their experience in Panama reinforced a central requirement for Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Soldiers: Before they can deliver specialized capabilities to a supported commander, they must be able to move, communicate, adapt and remain effective alongside the forces they support.
For USACAPOC(A) and the Army Reserve, these Soldiers represent another step toward building that capability across the force.
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